Vehicles which are driven in snowy conditions are subject to getting stucked in deep snow or on a particularly slippery road patch. When such a situation occurs, portable traction devices, often referred to as traction mats, are used to temporarily improve the friction coefficient between the road and the wheels of the vehicle.
The art of traction devices is replete with conventional traction mats of various shapes and sizes. Most of these traction mats have a substantially flat and elongated body defining a pair of traction surfaces. These conventional traction surfaces typically have a set of integrally and substantially perpendicularly projecting traction prongs defining a substantially corrugated-like pattern.
The conventional traction mats have a frontal edge which is adapted to be partially inserted between a slipping wheel of a vehicle and the corresponding slippery road patch so that when the wheel is rotated, it will engage the traction mat. Having engaged the traction mat, the wheel will roll on one of its corrugated surface while the other corrugated surface grips the slippery road patch, thus allowing the vehicle to get unstucked.
In order to be efficient, the conventional traction mats initially have to be properly wedged between the slipping wheel and the slippery road patch with the frontal edge of the traction mat squeezed between the relatively deformable tire and the road so that when the wheel is rotated, the friction between the tire and the mat will draw the latter under the wheel.
Since the mats are often used in snowy conditions, it is often necessary to remove some of the snow from the periphery of the wheel in order to allow proper initial insertion of the frontal edge of the traction mat underneath the wheel. Accordingly, users of such traction mats most often resort to shoveling some of the snow which surrounds the tire. Also, when particularly deep snow surrounds the vehicle, the user must shovel snow not only around the slipping wheel in order to allow insertion of the traction mat, but also in front or in back of the vehicle in order to create a path in which the vehicle will be able to move.
Users of conventional traction mats must therefore resort to carrying and handling along with the conventional traction mats a conventional snow shovel. The carrying and manipulation of two separate tools can prove to be both tedious and non-ergonomical, especially when the user is wearing mittens or gloves, which is often the case when ice or snowy conditions are encountered. Accordingly, there exists a need for a device which can be used alternatively both as a traction mat and as a shovel means.
A search amongst prior art documents has revealed one patent disclosing such a device. U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,768 granted to James Ewen, Feb. 19, 1991, and assigned to Ronald C. Lamparter, discloses a combined shovel and utility device that has an elongated body. A shovel scoop extends from one of the longitudinal ends of the body. A plurality of ridges extends integrally from the elongated body so that the device can be used alternatively as a shovel or as a traction mat.
However, the device disclosed is difficult to manipulate as a shovel.